Washington state delays ban on copper antifouling paint

A ban on the sale and use of copper antifouling paint that contains more than 0.5 percent copper in Washington State will be delayed until January 1, 2021 under a bill signed into law by Governor Jay Inslee.

HB 2634 also directs the Department of Ecology to complete a study by September 30, 2019, that assesses the environmental impacts of antifouling paints and their ingredients and investigates if there are safer alternatives to copper.

The delay was originally proposed because proponents of a ban couldn’t find a safer alternative to copper as a biocide, Peter Schrappen, vice president and director of government affairs for the Northwest Marine Trade Association, told Trade Only Today last November.